Sam
My attempt to reduce my plastic consumption!
My Personal Challenge Plan!
10/10/22
For my personal challenge I have decided to avoid buying any product containing plastic. I am choosing to do this because plastic is beginning to feel like an unavoidable material in today’s society. Yes, recycling plastic is possible, but studies show that each piece can only be recycled around 2 to 3 times before it is no longer usable (Sedaghat, 2018). I wanted to take on this challenge to see how difficult it would be to avoid plastic consumption altogether.
I plan on using my first week as a baseline week to see where most of my plastic consumption originates from and to also see how much I typically buy in a week. I anticipate that grocery shopping will bring in the most plastic because of the amount of packaging. I first plan on quantifying how many recyclable and non-recyclable plastic items I buy in a typical week. This will serve as a reference and a control. To further see this change, after week one I plan on keeping track of every plastic item that I normally would buy, as well as any plastic items that I may need to buy out of absolute necessity (medication bottles, for example).
In terms of supplies I plan on needing a datasheet to keep track of the number of recyclable and non-recyclable plastic items I consume in week one, and the number that I would have typically bought but avoided in weeks two through four. I would also like to have a column where I keep track of things that I substituted for plastic products. For example, if I would have typically bought frozen broccoli in a plastic bag I could write that instead I bought fresh broccoli in a reusable produce bag. I will count this challenge as a success if I can go without plastic for the three weeks after my initial baseline week, and if I can successfully replace half of the plastic items I typically use with non-plastic items.
I think the main challenges will come from food products. Many of the things I typically buy (berries, oat milk, granola bars, etc.) all come in at least some plastic packaging. I think that it will be difficult to replace some of these with non-plastic alternatives. I think that I should try to be conscious of any clothing that I buy as well, because plastics such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and polyamide are all becoming more commonly found in clothes. This may be hard to remember, though I don’t anticipate buying new clothes.
References
Sedaghat, L. (2018, April 13). 7 things you didn't know about plastic (and recycling). National Geographic Society Newsroom. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/#:~:text=Every%20time%20plastic%20is%20recycled,can%20no%20longer%20be%20use.
Week #1
10/17/22
This week began on 10/10/22 and ended as I'm posting this. This week served as my baseline week, so I bought what I normally would if I were not taking on my personal challenge to eliminate plastic. While I hope to measure the mass of my plastic consumption for the remainder of my challenge, I did not yet have a scale this week so my data was recorded in the size of the plastic (this is mostly in ounces, since all of my plastic consumption was food-related).
Despite not changing my consumption this past week, I found that I had a heightened awareness of how much plastic I was consuming. I anticipate it being difficult to replace certain items more than others. For example, I know granola bars are going to be a hard thing to give up, yet buying a cardboard egg carton instead of a plastic will be fairly easy.
Because food products seem to be my biggest offender, I will alter my diet considerably if necessary (yet not unhealthily-I will still make sure I get proper nutrition!) to ensure that I consume as little plastic as possible.
Week #1 Data
12 total recyclable items (counting lids and containers as separate)
22 total non-recyclable plastic items (biggest offender: granola bar wrappers!)
34 plastic items total
**Disclaimer: ounces are not an accurate measurement of how much plastic I was consuming because they include the weight of the food as well. Because I was unable to measure mass in week 1, I wanted to have some form of measurement that would communicate the size of the containers**
While I am normally not a frequent visitor to fast food restaurants, this past weekend I was traveling and unfortunately found myself going to both Jamba Juice and Chick-fil-A at the airport. This may have skewed my baseline data, since I do not consider this to be typical. Nevertheless, these restaurants made it difficult to avoid plastic.
Chick-fil-A Haul
Unrecyclable: utensil bag, fork, knife, straw, lined cup, sauce container
Recyclable: fruit container
6 vs 1!
In reference to last week I would like to elaborate on the importance of my personal challenge and how I will be linking it to the global biodiversity crisis. By measuring my plastic consumption in the following weeks in mass, I will be better able to quantify my consumption over time and will be able to more clearly connect my efforts to conservation.
Studies have shown that our oceans are polluted with 11 million metric tons of plastic every year (Kollar et al., 2022). I hope to compare my data from my baseline week to the amount of plastic I consume (on average) during the following three study weeks. After doing this I can extrapolate both sets of data to estimate the amount of plastic that this lifestyle would prevent from ending up in the ocean each year. While lecture has stated that only 4% of threatened species' cause of endangerment is pollution, I anticipate this number will only increase as plastic pollution in our oceans worsens. That is why it is important to make conscious efforts to combat this problem now!
References
Kollar, S., Tran, V., Schutes, A., & Black, M. (2022, September 13). Plastics in the Ocean. Retrieved from https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/plastics-in-the-ocean/
Week #2
10/24/22
This week began on 10/17/22 and ended on 10/24/22. This was my first week officially taking on my personal challenge to avoid buying plastic. I did not yet have access to a scale this week so I was unable to find the mass of my plastic items, but I did find a website that calculates your yearly plastic carbon footprint! Below is my recorded data for this week, and then my yearly plastic carbon footprint calculated for both last week's data and this week's data.
Link to plastic carbon footprint calculator: https://8billiontrees.com/carbon-offsets-credits/carbon-ecological-footprint-calculators/plastic-carbon-footprint/
Week #2 Data
A noticeably shorter list in comparison to last week!
I only bought 3 plastic items this week and was able to replace 5 plastic items with non-plastic items.
Week #1 Data
83 pounds was less than I expected! However, this calculator was fairly broad in its categories and I did have to lump some items together.
Week #2 Data
I made it down to 14 pounds a year! That is a 83% reduction. I want to try really hard to have a week where I can get it this number down to 0.
I think its safe to say that I have been successful in my reduction of my plastic consumption, yet I was unable to go a full week without buying anything plastic.
The hardest part of this challenge so far has definitely been grocery shopping. There were so many items that I normally would buy that I couldn't! Some things were replaceable. For example, swapping out frozen green beans for canned green beans was not that difficult to do. Other things were much harder to find a replacement for. I could not buy a loaf of bread because I couldn't find a way to buy it without buying plastic. I also could not buy granola bars (my go-to snack) and am still struggling to find a good replacement for these! Apples were my attempt this week, but I don't find them as convenient and they lack the protein I usually get. Snacks in general were the worst offender - even boxed snacks typically contain a plastic bag on the inside.
The easiest part of this challenge has been avoiding single use plastics such as coffee cups and plastic bags. Before I began this challenge I typically used reusable bags and cups. I also do not get fast food very often, so avoiding it for this challenge has not been difficult.
Typical Buy
Non-Plastic Replacement!
I LOVE berries, but I couldn't buy any this week because they only come in plastic containers! :(
I replaced the blueberries in my smoothies with a plastic-free mango.
Berries: A Sad Tale
Because last week was my baseline week, there were no challenges to surmount this week in relation to then. I do think I was better able to avoid fast food plastic this week because I wasn't traveling!
Encouraging Others to Join Me!
I think that the best way to convince others to take on this challenge is by bringing awareness to the amount of plastic we buy every day as a society. This could be done with social media info-posts or by word of mouth. I know that I have gotten the people around me to think about their plastic consumption simply by explaining my personal challenge to them!
It's really easy to forget about how prevalent plastic is today in our capitalistic world. I was habituated to it before I started this challenge. Once you begin to truly see it everywhere and in nearly everything you start to realize how big of a problem it has become.
Week #3
10/31/22
This week began on 10/24/22 and ended on 10/31/22, and it was my second week challenging myself to avoid buying plastic products! I received my scale on Thursday (10/27) but have decided that since I am almost done with my challenge, I will not be using it. I didn't feel that it would be accurate/consistent with the rest of my data so far (and I have not been saving my plastic - oops). So, I will continue to use the plastic carbon footprint calculator that I found last week instead!
Week #3 Data
A still shorter list! I bought only two relatively small plastic products this week and had only three plastic products I needed to replace.
Week #3 Yearly Plastic Carbon Footprint
I took some liberties and decided to count my two small plastic products as the equivalent of 1 yogurt container (assuming it's a single serving yogurt container).
The downside to this calculator is definitely its limited scope of plastic products, though I'm sure it is hard to make an all-inclusive one with how many things contain plastic nowadays!
On a positive note, my yearly plastic carbon footprint dropped 8 pounds from last week to this week! Hopefully during my last week I can finally reach 0 pounds.
I still have been unsuccessful in going a full week without buying any plastic, yet I am proud of myself for reducing my consumption so much.
As I said last week, grocery shopping has been and continues to be the hardest part of my personal challenge. During my first week I was able to coast on a technicality by using food products containing plastic that I had bought before my personal challenge started. For example, I had a box of cereal and a jar of powdered peanut butter that I put into my oatmeal. Once I ran out of those things, I realized how much I relied on plastic products when it came to my cooking and eating habits.
If I'm being completely honest, I found it really hard to cook meals that I enjoyed last week. I've been in a food rut, but I liked my food rut and no longer being able to buy things I loved (bread! bagels! chia seeds! berries!!!) definitely made cooking a stressful activity. I found myself scrambling a lot and eating some meals that were pretty boring. Despite this I want to make it extremely clear that I have been making my nutrition a priority and I am eating enough throughout the day. I just wanted to be very candid about how hard this challenge has been, food-wise!
The easiest part continues to be common single-use plastics such as takeout containers, to-go cups, plastic straws, and plastic bags. I believe that these are things that can be avoided with simple shifts in behavior and perspective.
Olive Oil Replacement
On the left is the olive oil I typically buy, which comes in a plastic container.
On the right is the olive oil I replaced it with. It came in a glass container and was slightly more expensive, though some of the price difference may have come from the fact that it is organic as well.
Some of last week's challenges are seemingly unsurmountable. There are some products that you simply cannot (or at least not easily as a typical consumer) replace with something non-plastic. I will admit that I did not try very hard to find another replacement for granola bars besides apples, though I did buy oranges as well in case I needed to switch it up! Plastic is systematically built into our society, particularly in our food products, and it is definitely a formidable obstacle for me in being successful in my personal challenge.
Leading by Example
Continuing on my idea from last week of bringing awareness to the amount of plastic in our society, I believe that I am doing this by simply telling people about my challenge. For example, I have lamented to my boyfriend about how difficult it has been, and it made him decide to try and unofficially challenge himself as well! He is definitely being a little more lax than I am, but he is trying his best to find plastic-free alternatives to as much as he can.
Through continual word of mouth I believe that we can bring attention to this major issue facing our world today.
Week #4
(Final Report)
11/7/22
Introduction
For my personal challenge, I wanted to address the problem of the overconsumption of plastic in modern day society. I decided to take this problem on by challenging myself to avoid buying products containing plastic. I was successful in significantly reducing my plastic consumption in relation to my reference week, but I was unsuccessful in going a full week without buying any plastic.
Methods
Week one served as my reference week, and I bought items as I normally would. Weeks two through four (for a total of three weeks) served as my challenge weeks. For this challenge I created a spreadsheet for each week where I outlined plastic I bought, plastic I would have bought, and my non-plastic replacement. In my first week, I had planned on measuring my plastic by weight (or mass), but after finding a plastic carbon footprint calculator online I decided to use that instead! This decision was also coupled with the fact that the scale came in week three, and I felt that my data would be more consistent if I kept using the calculator. Each week I calculated my estimated annual plastic carbon footprint in pounds, and I used this to track my progress.
Results
The images below outline the results of my personal challenge. My first two images outline my results from week four. In week four, I unfortunately bought one plastic item on Saturday, meaning that I was unable to get through any week without buying plastic. Despite this I was able to replace four items, and I got my yearly plastic carbon footprint down to 1 pound!
Figure one shows the number of plastic items I consumed each week. I was able to go from 34 items in week one to 1 item in week four, which was a 97.06% decrease. Figure two shows my yearly plastic carbon footprint in pounds. I was able to go from 83 pounds in week one to 1 pound in week four, which was a 98.8% decrease.
Week #4 Data
Week #4 Yearly Plastic Carbon Footprint
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Discussion
I believe my goal to avoid buying any and all plastic products for three weeks was rather ambitious, especially in today's plastic-filled society. Going strictly off of that goal, I did not achieve it. Despite this I do not consider the outcome of my challenge a failure! I was able to decrease my yearly plastic carbon footprint by 98.8%! I feel that my efforts made a difference both in the global waste crisis and the climate crisis.
As I stated many times before, my biggest challenge was avoiding plastic while grocery shopping. The majority of items have some sort of plastic packaging to them, making it hard to find alternatives for many different things. Plastic items are also extremely convenient, arguably more-so than non-plastic alternatives. Industries make it hard to be an environmentally conscious consumer, but despite not achieving a 100% reduction in my plastic consumption I felt like I my outcome was a realistic win.
This challenge really changed my perspective when it comes to being a consumer. I felt so much guilt buying plastic, despite the fact that in some cases it was necessary. Even though it was really hard, I feel inspired me to try and continue to reduce my plastic consumption as much as I can, and perhaps try to have some weeks throughout the year where I successfully buy zero plastic products (because it is possible!).
Week #4
(Concluding Essay)
My personal challenge was part of the larger group tackling the problem of product consumption. Four out of the five of us chose to tackle our plastic consumption, while one decided to tackle textile consumption. Across those working to reduce our plastic consumption, there were some very apparent commonalities when it came to our challenges. We all seemed to make observations about plastic's role as an item of ease, especially when it comes to single-use convenience items such as to-go coffee cups and fast food containers. But we also made observations about how plastics could be found in many other more necessary items as well, particularly in the grocery store.
Despite Anella's challenge being different in that it involved textile use, I did find some similarities between her challenge and mine. Repurposing clothing you already own has similar goals to bringing reusable produce bags to the grocery store or buying your coffee in a reusable coffee cup. The idea of reusing items is central to solving the problem of product overconsumption, and it was very interesting to think about how we tackled that problem in different ways.
In my last week, I decided to meal prep what I called a "dump bowl". Essentially, I took a grain (quinoa) and cooked a bunch of vegetables to mix in with it. As you'll see in the photo below, I put in garbanzo beans, mushrooms, sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini yellow onions, and green onions. It was a really lovely meal, and I managed to buy all of the ingredients without buying plastic.
During this challenge, the easiest thing for me to change was opting for canned items over plastic-packaged items. This was especially meaningful when it came to vegetables, since I typically would buy them frozen in bags. Another great way to get over the no-plastic hurdle was to buy fresh produce! For the meal I mentioned above, I brought in reusable produce bags to hold the vegetables and was able to create a 5-day meal out of it. Canned beans were a decent source of protein as well, which was my swap for plastic-wrapped meat. Despite these successes, there were a lot of plastic products that would be very hard to avoid in the long-run.
As I mentioned earlier, plastic products have a certain ease about them and plastic can be found in or around almost everything you buy. I believe that in order to convince the majority of consumers to change their ways, we first need to advocate for easier access to food and products in non-plastic packaging. This is a serious problem that companies need to address. Next, we need to advocate for the societal switch to reusable materials, whether that be in the form of buying secondhand clothes or bringing a reusable shopping bag to the store. By trying to address both of these issues on a personal scale during my personal challenge, I was able to decrease my yearly plastic carbon footprint by 98.8%! This shows that there is a clear connection between an individual's plastic consumption and the current biodiversity and climate crises.
It certainly won't be easy (because it definitely wasn't for me) but small steps taken by consumers have the power to make a serious impact, if only they take the time to try.
